tea.mathoverflow.net - Discussion Feed (Minor edits)

Unknown G. comments on "Minor edits" (5463)

Unknown G. — Fri, 07 May 2010 15:23:07 -0700

@Scott Morrison,

Thank you very much for your answer!

Scott Morrison comments on "Minor edits" (5461)

Scott Morrison — Fri, 07 May 2010 15:16:00 -0700

@Unknown G.,

you are very welcome to make minor edits to your questions, and especially encouraged to do so if you will otherwise be annoyed!

Bumping a question to the front page isn't entirely a bad thing. I don't mind that the extra attention you put into your question (cleaning up typos, improving phrasing, etc) results in some extra attention on the part of others, answering it. Of course it's a grey area, where the unacceptable behaviour can only really be distinguished from acceptable behaviour by intent, not means. The fact that you're being cautious about this issue almost certainly means you're being too cautious. (Those who take the time to read the rules, generally don't need to...)

Harry Gindi comments on "Minor edits" (5459)

Harry Gindi — Fri, 07 May 2010 12:40:42 -0700

There should be nothing wrong with making any number of edits as long as the page doesn't get bumped...

Regenbogen comments on "Minor edits" (5458)

Regenbogen — Fri, 07 May 2010 12:33:53 -0700

Of course, it is not a good idea to make 50 or 100 edits to your posts and that would be bad etiquette. Otherwise, unless the number of edits is very high, it is better to correct an error, even a minor one, than to leave it as it is.

Harry Gindi comments on "Minor edits" (5457)

Harry Gindi — Fri, 07 May 2010 12:30:58 -0700

Yes, I feel like silent edits should be a privilege for high-reputation (say 800 points) users. This will prevent against abuses of the edit system while also making the site more usable for people who spend time here.

Unknown G. comments on "Minor edits" (5456)

Unknown G. — Fri, 07 May 2010 12:16:27 -0700

Occasionally, I notice some very minor typos in one of my answers/questions that is already not in the front page. Also, there are cases where I'm not completely satisfied with my phrasing, and I'd like to make some small changes. The problem is that any edit bumps the question/answer to the front page, and therefore until now I have never made a minor edit.

However, as time passes by I get more and more annoyed by seeing these minor errors/bad choices of phrasing, and I'd really like to know whether making minor edits is legitimate in MO. Of course, I'm not talking about a burst of edits (say, at least one week between minor edits).